Shoring Up Its Religious Profile

The church has adopted the terminology and trappings of
traditional theologies. But the IRS is not convinced.

(Monday, 25 June 1990, page A18:1)

Since its founding some 35 years ago by the late science
fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology has worked hard to shore up
its religious profile for the public, the courts and the Internal
Revenue Service.

In the old days, for example, those who purchased Hubbard's
Scientology courses were called "students." Today, they are
"parishioners." The group's "franchises" have become "missions." And
Hubbard's teachings, formerly his "courses," now are described as
sacred scriptures.

The word "Dianetics" was even redefined to give it a spiritual
twist. For years, Hubbard said it meant "through the mind." The new
definition: "through the soul."

Canadian authorities learned firsthand how far Scientologists would
go to maintain a religious aura.

According to police documents disclosed in 1984, an undercover
officer who infiltrated Scientology's Toronto outpost during an
investigation of its activities was asked by a church official to don
a "white collar so that someone in the (organization) looked like a
minister."

For three decades, critics have accused Scientology of assuming the
mantle of religion to shield itself from government inquiries and
taxes.

"To some, this seems mere opportunism," Hubbard said of
Scientology's religious conversion in a 1954 communique to his
followers. "To some it would seem that Scientology is simply making
itself bulletproof in the eyes of the law...."

But, Hubbard insisted, religion is "basically a philosophic
teaching designed to better the civilization into which it is
taught.... A Scientologist has a better right to call himself a
priest, a minister, a missionary, a doctor of divinity, a faith healer
or a preacher than any other man who bears the insignia of religion of
the Western World."

Joseph Yanny, a Los Angeles attorney who represented the church
until he had a bitter falling out with the group in 1987, said
Scientology portrays itself as a religion only where it is expedient
to do so -- such as in the U.S., where tax laws favor religious
organizations.

In Israel and many parts of Latin America, where there is either a
state religion or a prohibition against religious organizations owning
property, Yanny said Scientology claims to be a philosophical society.

In the beginning, Hubbard toyed with different ways to promote his
creation.

For a time, he called it "the only successfully validated
psychotherapy in the world." To those who completed his courses, he
offered "certification" as a "Freudian psychoanalyst."

He also described it as a "precision science" that required no
faith or beliefs to produce "completely predictable results" of higher
intelligence and better health. Hubbard bestowed upon its
practitioners the title "doctor of Scientology."

This characterization, however, landed him in trouble with the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration and a federal judge, who concluded in
1971 that Hubbard was making false medical claims and had employed
"skillful propaganda to make Scientology ... attractive in many
varied, often inconsistent wrappings."

The judge said, however, that if claims about Scientology were
advanced in a purely spiritual context, they would be beyond the
government's reach because of protections afforded religions under the
First Amendment.

In the United States, it is easy to become a church, no matter how
unconventional -- you just say it is so. The hard part may come in
keeping tax-exempt status, as Scientology has learned.

The U.S. government is constitutionally barred from determining
what is and what is not a religion. But, under the law, there is no
guaranteed right to tax exemption. The IRS can make a church pay taxes
if it fails to meet criteria established by the agency.

A tax-exempt religion may not, for example, operate primarily for
business purposes, commit crimes, engage in partisan politics or
enrich private individuals. It should, among other things, have a
formal doctrine, ordained ministers, religious services, sincerely
held beliefs and an established place of worship.

In 1967, the Church of Scientology of California was stripped of
its tax-exempt status by the IRS, an action the church considered
unlawful and thus ignored. The IRS, in turn, undertook a mammoth audit
of the church for the years 1970 through 1974.

Sunday services were mandated and chapels were ordered erected in
Scientology buildings. It was made a punishable offense for a staffer
to omit from church literature the notation that Scientology is a
"religious philosophy."

Many of the changes flowed from a flurry of "religious image"
directives issued by high-level Scientology executives. One policy put
it bluntly: "Visual evidences that Scientology is a religion are
mandatory."

None of this, however, convinced the IRS, which assessed the church
more than $1 million in back taxes for the years 1970 through 1972.
Scientology appealed to the U.S. Tax Court, where, in 1984, it was
handed one of the worst financial and public relations disasters in
its history.

In a blistering opinion, the court backed the IRS and said the
Church of Scientology of California had "made a business out of
selling religion," had diverted millions of dollars to Hubbard and his
family and had "conspired for almost a decade to defraud the United
States Government by impeding the IRS."

The church lost again when it took the case before the U.S. 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and the U.S. Supreme Court
let the lower-court decision stand.

Stripped of its tax-exempt status, Scientology executives turned
the Church of Scientology of California into a virtual shell.

Once called the "Mother Church," it no longer controls the
Scientology empire and does not serve as the chief depository for
church funds.

It has been replaced by a number of new organizations that
Scientology executives maintain are religious and tax exempt. But,
once again, the IRS has disagreed, ruling that the new organizations
are still operating in a commercial manner.